Terminalia ramatuella Alwan & Stace

  • Authority

    Stace, C. A. & Alwan, A.-R A. 2010. Combretaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 107: 1-369. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Combretaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Terminalia ramatuella Alwan & Stace

  • Type

    Type. Venezuela. Amazonas: Río Atabapo, 1799-1804, Bonpland s.n (holotype, P; isotypes, P, F fragment).

  • Synonyms

    Terminalia argentea Mart.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or tree 5-10 m. Leaves 2-10 × 1-4 cm, oblanceolate to narrowly obovate or elliptic, rounded to retuse at apex, narrowly attenuate-cuneate at base, often slightly revolute at margin, glabrous except puberulous on midvein adaxially, densely silvery-sericeous abaxially; domatia absent. Venation brochidodromous; midvein stout, prominent; secondary veins 4-11 pairs, moderately spaced to distant, arising at moderately to widely acute angles, slightly curved to straight or sometimes slightly recurved, scarcely or not prominent; intersecondary veins often present, often almost as evident as secondaries; tertiary veins inconspicuous, randomly reticulate; higher order veins indistinct; areolation imperfect or incomplete, not prominent. Petiole 0.5-1.6 cm, appressed-puberulous, usually obscurely biglandular at junction with leaf. Inflorescences 1-5.5 cm, simple, more or less capitate except sometimes with more distant male flowers proximally, andromonoecious with male flowers proximal and bisexual flowers distal, rarely some inflorescences with entirely male or bisexual flowers; peduncle 0.8-5 cm, densely appressed-puberulous; rhachis 0.2-0.8 cm, densely appressed-puberulous. Flowers tetramerous to pentamerous (mostly tetramerous, very rarely some hexamerous), the bisexual ones 5.5-6 × 3-4.5 mm, the male ones ca. 4×3-4.5 mm; lower hypanthium 2.6-3.2 mm in bisexual flowers, pedicel-like and 0.7-1.2 mm in male flowers, densely sericeous; upper hypanthium 1-7-2.2 mm, cupuliform, densely sericeous; calyx lobes 0.7-1.2 mm, densely sericeous, erect; disk villous; stamens 3-4 mm, style ca. 3 mm, glabrous or pilose proximally. Fruits crowded into more or less globose terminal heads, 0.8-1.2 × 0.8-1.4 cm, actinomorphic, rhombic to transversely elliptic in side view, obtuse to acute and abruptly narrowed into a narrow beak 0.2-0.4(-0.6) cm at apex, obtuse and gradually narrowed into stout pseudostipe 0.1-0.4 cm at base, densely silvery-sericeous; wings 4-5(-6), rigid, equal, straight-edged, 0.3-0.7 cm wide, narrowly rounded to pointed laterally; body 0.2-0.3 cm wide. Reproductive biology. Flowers cream-colored. Flowering October; fruiting (October) November to May.

  • Discussion

    Illustrations. Figs. 92i & 104e (fr), 101d (If). Eichler (1867), pl. 26 (as Ramatuellea argentea)', Exell & Stace (1963), fr, p. 40 (as Ramatuellea argentea); Stace & Alwan (1998), p. 350.

    Terminalia ramatuellea differs from its two close relatives in its densely white-sericeous abaxial leaf surface and fruits, and in the fruits with wings which are short in the longitudinal plane and hence almost pointed at the lateral margin. It appears to be a rare species and very few flowering specimens have been seen.

  • Common Names

    Palo de pica pica

  • Distribution

    Inundated forests, edges of lakes and rivers, river gorges, seasonally dry scrub-savannas, tall open forests, at 75-130 m. Headwaters of Ríos Negro and Orinoco in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil, in an area ca. 290 × 230 km, where it occurs typically with Buchenavia reticulata, B. macrophylla, B. ochroprumna, B. suaveolens, Terminalia virens, T. crispialata, and T. yapacana.

    Amazonas Brazil South America| Amazonas Venezuela South America| Guainía Colombia South America|